Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes are as likely to medal at Tokyo Games as Brooke Henderson

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/07/2021 (1889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bits, Bites and Barbs from around the world of golf:

• Bits: Louis Oosthuizen is a runner-up yet again, this time in Minnesota at the 3M Open. The man has more seconds than Garfield at a lasagna bar … Last week I mentioned several Canadians in need of big moves on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standing with the regular season winding down. Adam Hadwin, the 36-hole leader at the 3M Open last week, moved up 13 spots by tying for sixth. He’s got more breathing room now, sitting 107th, with 125 the cut-off for guaranteeing full status next season …

Holy moly, what a performance by Nicole Gal last week. The 16-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., won the Canadian junior girls’ championship by a whopping 12 shots with a 13-under-par total over four days. She doubled up with the juvenile title as well. Huge kudos to her …

A shout-out to Joey Savoie as well. The Quebecer finished second in his first Forme Tour event last week. The Forme Tour was established by the PGA Tour as a place to play for American and international members of the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada who can’t come north this summer — or couldn’t when the tour was announced in the springtime — because of border restrictions. Several Canadians ultimately went to Forme Tour Qualifying School in the U.S. with the carrot of 2022 Korn Ferry Tour cards for its top players worth chasing … Savoie is one of many Quebec golfers trying to end the province’s long drought of not producing a PGA Tour player.

• Bites: Roger Sloan crept up the FedEx pecking order too, but he’ll surely be ruing his final result at the 3M. Like Hadwin, the Merritt, B.C., product spent time atop the leaderboard in Minnesota, but he sputtered home on Sunday to finish tied for 16th. He moved up 10 spots to sit 137th, but a double-bogey and a bogey over his last six holes cost Sloan a lot of points …

The logical choice for Canadian most likely to medal in Olympic golf is Brooke Henderson, but is that the right choice? I’m inclined to think Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes are as, if not more, likely to wind up on the podium. Both are playing exceptionally well and the men’s field isn’t all that strong, especially with Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau now out of the picture. Henderson won earlier this year, yes, but she’s not played her best lately … Astonishing stuff regarding Rahm, like DeChambeau out of the Olympics because a positive COVID test. That’s two positives for Rahm in the last two months, with a major championship victory at the U.S. Open and, apparently, full vaccination in between …

Played golf last week at course with no restrictions. The hole seemed huge without the flagstick and accompanying ball lift device in the way. Not that I made that many more putts.

• Barbs: This week, for the first time since mid-September 2019, the Mackenzie Tour — the PGA Tour-sanctioned circuit in Canada — will conduct an event. It will take place in the Montreal suburb of Blainville, Que., and while things aren’t entirely back to normal for the Mackenzie Tour, with many of its members playing the aforementioned Forme Tour this year, there certainly will be reason to celebrate when the first ball is struck on Thursday.

“I’m excited for our tournaments and our sponsors and for everyone who has been involved with this and working hard throughout the pandemic to bring events to fruition, so to see the season happen is exciting,” said Scott Pritchard, the executive director of the Mackenzie Tour.

The eight-event season, which will wind up in Victoria in early October, will provide many young Canadian pros with an opportunity to shine as they vie for status on the Mackenzie Tour in 2022. Those include Kaleb Gorbhan of Smithers, B.C., Calgarian Evan Holmes, Cambridge, Ont.’s Brendan Leonard, Toronto’s Sabastian Szirmak, Quebec’s Brandon Lacasse and Newfoundlander Blair Bursey. So much of our attention is paid to the top league of any sport for obvious reasons, but the Mackenzie Tour is precisely where Hughes, Conners, Nick Taylor, Michael Gligic, Taylor Pendrith got their start. Not to mention PGA Tour winners such as Tony Finau, Joel Dahmen, Aaron Wise and Cam Davis.

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The Mackenzie Tour’s cancelled year of 2020 — but for a four-event pop-up series — was a tough blow for the development of the next wave of top Canadian pros. It’s wonderful to see the circuit back after months of negotiations with health officials from every level of government. Canadian professional golf, especially on the men’s side, is on a roll and the Mackenzie Tour has played a big part in the volume of players and success we’re seeing on the PGA Tour now.

Obscure thought of the week: Every four (or five) years I forget how impressive the world’s top volleyball players are to watch. Mesmerizing.